Yu Darvish still drawing eyes in Japan including some outside of baseball

1/31

Michael Ainsworth/Staff Photographer

A LOOK AT YU DARVISH'S 2012 STARTS: Rangers starting pitcher Yu Darvish was an instant success in his first season in Texas, winning the AL rookie of the month honors in April without losing a game. Here's a look at how Darvish has pitched in 2012.

TOKYO — Most Japanese put work first, but when a once-in-a-generation pitcher moves to Texas to play in the major leagues, some will sacrifice sleep to catch a game being played 15 time zones away.

Kabe Takumi and his two friends explained recently outside a Seibu Lions game in Tokyo that they don’t care how early the games are. They’ve watched every Yu Darvish start live — some have begun as early as 2 a.m. local time — and have no problem continuing the streak.

“Because it’s Darvish, I’ll be sleepy at work,” said Takumi.

In media-saturated Japan, however, fans have plenty of alternatives to find out how Darvish pitched: morning news highlights, which run on seemingly every channel; newspapers with circulations in the millions that include his nickname, “Daru,” and strikeout total in the headline; and full replay of each of his games.

And of course, all of the above options are available to the millions of train commuters who use smart phones.

Darvish commands attention for his Iranian heritage, his endorsements and his magazine appearances, including the cover of the Japanese edition of GQ, but it is mostly his pedigree as a pitcher and dominance of his domestic league that has captivated fans in Japan.

Robert Whiting, who has covered baseball in Japan for decades as a journalist, described the Darvish phenomenon in both baseball and personal terms.

“His first game [for the Rangers], even my wife watched it, which was really unusual, ’cause she doesn’t even like baseball,” said Whiting, who wrote a book about Japanese baseball called The Chrysanthemum and the Bat and is a regular contributor for The Japan Times and Sports Illustrated, among others.

Video Research — the Nielsen-like ratings system for Japan — doesn’t release data on how many are watching the live and replay broadcasts for Rangers games, but Whiting said the overall coverage of Darvish has been as big as other seminal moments in Japan-MLB relations.

The list includes Hideo Nomo’s first MLB win in 1995, Ichiro Suzuki passing George Sisler’s record for hits in a season in 2004 and Daisuke Matsuzaka winning Game 3 of the 2007 World Series for the Red Sox, Whiting said.

With slugger Hideki Matsui and Ichiro getting older, and the highly publicized failures of Japanese players like Kosuke Fukudome and Kei Igawa, Whiting said, the timing of Darvish is perfect.

“It used to be that a star in Japan would equate to a star in the States, but now perhaps the perception is that Ichiro and Matsui were exceptions,” he said. “He’s really restored, given a boost to the Japanese national ego.”

Darvish, 25, was the highest-paid player in Japan, commanding 500 million yen ($6.4 million) a year before leaving for Arlington. At 6-5 and more than 215 pounds, he was certainly one of the largest players in the Nippon Baseball League. His career ERA in the Pacific League is 1.99, but the Japanese are endeared to him even more for his winning performances in global games like the Olympics and World Baseball Classic.

While baseball is the crux of Darvish’s popularity (there is an iPhone app called the Yu Darvish Breaking Ball Bible), baseball alone doesn’t explain the universalism of “Daru” in Japan.

He blogs frequently on his website and has more than 600,000 followers on Twitter. His appeal transcends class and age.

Customers at the Baseman Baseball Shop in Iidabashi, a neighborhood in Tokyo, can find Rangers hats along with Darvish T-shirts and jerseys in the American baseball section upstairs.

Floor manager Kouichi Harunari, who said the $44 T-shirts are the most popular item, believes Darvish’s youth and status as Japan’s No. 1 pitcher give him the perfect combo for popularity.

“After Darvish wins, we sell a lot of T-shirts,” he said. “If he becomes an All-Star, we will surely sell more.”

Not far away at the Legends Sports Bar in Roppongi, employee Sato Taiki said the live feeds are at an unreasonable time for most, but he knows that the replays are popular at his work.

“Japanese people come to watch major league games more than before,” said Taiki. “Before, there was nobody.”

To post a comment, log into your chosen social network and then add your comment below. Your comments are subject to our Terms of Service and the privacy policy and terms of service of your social network. If you do not want to comment with a social network, please consider writing a letter to the editor.